They build too low who build beneath the skies
an inscription on a building in Washington, D.C

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them.
Henry David Thoreau

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.
Albert Schweitzer

Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away.

If what you're working for really matters, you'll give it all you've got.
Nido Qubein

Kites rise highest against the wind -- not with it.
Sir Winston Churchill

People prefer to follow those who help them, not those who intimidate them.
C. Gene Wilkes

You are what you think. You are what you go for. You are what you do!
Bob Richards

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan, 'Press on,' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race
Calvin Coolidge

Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?
Mary Manin Morrissey

Nobody is stronger, nobody is weaker than someone who came back.There is nothing you can do to such a person because whatever you could do is less than what has already been done to him. We have already paid the price.
Elie Wiesel

I've always felt it was not up to anyone else to make me give my best.
Akeem Olajuwon

This is actually a paraphrase of a Buddhist teaching
called the "Dhammapada" which is attributed to the Buddha.
It reads:
The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings...
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.
John Wooden

Nobody motivates today's workers. If it doesn't come from within, it doesn't come. Fun helps remove the barriers that allow people to motivate themselves.
Herman Cain

If people are coming to work excited . . . if they're making mistakes freely and fearlessly . . . if they're having fun . . . if they're concentrating doing things, rather than preparing reports and going to meetings - then somewhere you have leaders.

Robert Townsend

When he reached the New World, Cortez burned his ships. As a result his crew was well motivated.
The Hunt For Red October

No one does anything from a single motive.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What we see depends mainly on what we look for.
Sir John Lubbock

Why did I want to win? because I didn't want to lose!
Max Schmelling

The most important thing about motivation is goal setting. You should always have a goal.
Francie Larrieu Smith

I still feel like I gotta prove something. There are a lot of people hoping I fail. But I like that. I need to be hated.
Howard Stern

We know nothing about motivation. All we can do is write books about it.
Peter F. Drucker

This time like all times is a very good one if we but know what to do with it
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leadership is doing what is right when no one is watching.
George Van Valkenburg

There is nothing that fear and hope does not permit men to do.
Marquis De Vauvenargues

Everyone is trying to accomplish something big, not realizing that life is made up of little things.
Frank A. Clark

You cannot raise a man up by calling him down.
William Boetcker

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top ups.
Peter Davies